


Strategy!

by imaginary_golux



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Crack, Fix-It of Sorts, Force Ghost Anakin Skywalker, Force Ghost Obi-Wan Kenobi, Force Ghost Qui-Gon Jinn, Gen, Villain Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 11:19:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 972
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13950465
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginary_golux/pseuds/imaginary_golux
Summary: The Force ghost of Anakin Skywalker has some very strong feelings about Snoke trying to groom himself a new Darth Vader, using Anakin's only grandson no less.Snoke maybe should have thought this through a little more.Beta by my Best Beloved, Turn_of_the_Sonic_Screw.





	Strategy!

The first time Leia catches Anakin standing over little Ben’s crib, she summons her blaster - even knowing it will do nothing against a Force ghost - and aims it squarely at Anakin’s head, snarling like a Nabooian tusked panther. “You _stay away from him_ , you banthakriffer,” she snaps. “The last thing my son needs is _Darth kriffing Vader_ hanging around.”

Anakin winces and takes a step back. “You know you can’t hurt me with that,” he says hesitantly.

“I’m willing to try,” Leia says.

Anakin takes another step back. “Um,” he says, “may I offer a compromise? He’s - he’s my only grandson, I want to see him grow up, I want to keep him safe. I promise you, I won’t speak to him and I won’t let him see me; but can I come and _look_?”

Leia...hesitates. Darth Vader she could have told to kriff off without a single qualm - hells, if the ghost standing over her son’s crib was Darth Vader she’d have Luke in here to do a Force exorcism faster than lightspeed - but this young man, not so much older than _she_ is, with enormous pleading eyes…

“Fine,” she says ungraciously. “He never sees you, and you never speak to him. But you can watch.”

“Thank you,” Anakin says, and bows, and vanishes.

*

Anakin keeps his word: young Ben never sees him, and he never speaks to the child. But he watches Ben grow from a tiny squalling creature to a bright-eyed toddler moving his toys around with the Force, to a gangly child learning Shyriiwook from his Uncle Chewie and piloting from his Uncle Luke and mechanical engineering from his doting father and leadership from his adoring mother.

And he sees the nightmares. They’re not natural, Anakin knows after the first few times; some Dark thing is _daring_ to touch his grandson. Still, he holds his tongue and his temper until Ben has gone off to Luke’s school, has made friends and become Luke’s finest student -

Has begun waking up in the middle of the night to hold long, whispered conversations with some creature called “Snoke,” who apparently wants Ben to become the next Darth Vader.

Oh _hells_ no.

Anakin thinks maybe if he _talked_ to Ben, he could convince the child - teenager, now, if only barely - that being Darth Vader was really not a good thing. Kind of a terrible thing, in fact. But Anakin made a promise to Leia, and also, well…

Anakin was never terribly good with words. He’d probably muck it all up somehow, and send the boy even _faster_ into the Dark.

So instead he does two things. First, he goes to _Luke_ , and wakes his son up - so it’s the middle of the night, time doesn’t really matter to a Force ghost - and says, “You need to tell all the kids about Darth Vader - about what being Darth Vader _really_ meant. About how I was a slave all my life, until the very end.”

And then he leaves Luke boggling and goes out _looking_. He has a name, and the feel of this kriffer’s Force-signature, and he’s a Force ghost: he doesn’t need to sleep, or eat, or pause. It takes him a while; it takes him _months_ , and every second of that time he’s furious and frustrated and in shaking terror that _today_ will be the day Ben Falls. But at last he finds this “Snoke,” out in the Outer Rim, calling himself the Supreme Leader of a new Order that will rise to bring the Empire to life again.

Anakin isn’t having with _that_.

He waits until the room is empty except for Snoke, because Force ghosts don’t have a _lot_ of power in the living world, but Anakin has always been excessively powerful and he’s perfectly willing to spend every erg of Force he’s got and also his entire life, if that’s what it takes to get this parasite out of his grandson’s _head_. He doesn’t bother with ceremony. He just appears in the throne room, looming over Snoke, and snarls, “You wanted Darth Vader? Well, you’ve _kriffing got him_.”

And then he tears Snoke’s head off.

It’s not easy - the Force doesn’t like being used that way, not by a ghost against the living - but Anakin is stubborn, and Snoke is honestly too surprised to fight back until it’s far too late.

Anakin impales the head on one of the spiky bits of Snoke’s throne and leaves the carcass to confuse and possibly demoralize everyone else, and steps back out of the living world, into the warm embrace of the Force. He’s too exhausted to do anything but collapse in a heap and stare up at the stars, and he’s not sure how long he’s been lying there before Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon appear, standing over him with identical expressions of mild dismay.

“Heh,” Anakin says, as they help him back to his feet, draping his arms over their shoulders. “And you said I couldn’t think strategically.”

“Anakin,” Obi-Wan says, in a very familiar tone of long-suffering exasperation, “you tore his head off.”

“Strategically!” Anakin says proudly, and Obi-Wan covers his face with the hand not being used to hold Anakin upright and sighs.

“I think we need to have a bit of a talk about your definition of _strategy_ , padawan,” Qui-Gon says, sounding more amused than anything else. “But for now, let’s get you back to your grandson.”

“He’s alright?” Anakin asks desperately. “It worked?”

“He’s doing...better,” Qui-Gon says. “It may take him a while to recover, but Luke is working with him, and I think without Snoke dripping poison in his ear, he won’t be so quick to trust the Dark.”

“Good,” Anakin says, smiling proudly. “I _said_ I’d protect him.”

“So you did, padawan,” Obi-Wan says, sounding very fond and rather proud. “So you did.”

**Author's Note:**

> I am imaginarygolux on tumblr.


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